The online graphic design platform, Canva, based in Sydney, Australia announced today its official launch in India, a market that already has more than 1,50,000 users. With the goodwill of existing user base and the official presence now in the country, the successful startup aims to net 1 million users in India by the end of 2016.
In just over two years, Canva has more than 5 million users spread across 179 countries and boasts of a platform that sees more than 1 million designs been created every week. It sees sees to leverage the fast growing blogger, social media marketing and startup communities. Also, the company says they see a high adoption by small graphic design businesses in India for their platform to create posters.
For starters, Canva is a easy to use tool with preset templates, custom-build templastes and stock photography and fonts which the users can use by simple drag options to create posters, covers, infographics and graphics for social media platforms and for general presentation. The best part of the platform is it is largely free to use all the tools and if needed, people can buy stock photography for 1$. Canva has also recently launched Canva for Work, a subscription for businesses that allows for team collaboration.
On the financial side, the company co-founded by young entrepreneurs duo Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, recently secured a $US 15 million series A funding with its current valuation at $US 165 million. It plans to invest in local marketing, business development and brand partnerships in India with marketers, designers and businesses.
Taking note of the design requirements of the Indian market, the company has introduced customized Indian design elements in its design library. It also has templates for cards and social media posts to celebrate festivals such as Durga Pooja, Dussehra and Diwali.
“Design in India comes with a background of so much colour, vibrance and a multicultural ethos that is native to the Indian spirit. For this reason, we are launching in India with customized festival themed templates to cater to digital marketers, bloggers and designers during the upcoming festive season,” said Melanie Perkins, CEO & Founder, Canva,
She further noted about their entry into the Indian market
“We are incredibly excited to be launching Canva in India. It’s already one of our top five markets, and we see great potential for it to become an even bigger market for us. We will be investing in local marketing, business development and brand partnerships in India with the goal of getting the word about Canva out to Indian social media marketers, bloggers and small businesses, and empowering them to create their own beautiful designs. We’ll also be launching our Canva Experts partnerships in India and working with local firms to help Indian users get the most out of the platform. We decided to launch in India because it’s already a key market for Canva, and we feel it has great potential for growth, especially considering Indians are known to have a strong design aesthetic, and be early adopters of new technology and applications,”
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